Editing Evolutionary linguistics (section)

===Functionalism (adaptationism) ===

The adaptational view of language is advocated by various frameworks of cognitive and evolutionary linguistics, with the terms 'functionalism' and 'Cognitive Linguistics' often being equated.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://cognitivelinguistics.org/en/about-cognitive-linguistics |title=About Cognitive Linguistics|website=cognitivelinguistics.org |publisher=ICLA - International Cognitive Linguistics Association |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191209162946/https://cognitivelinguistics.org/en/about-cognitive-linguistics|access-date=2020-05-12|archive-date=2019-12-09}}</ref> It is hypothesised that the evolution of the animal brain provides humans with a mechanism of abstract reasoning which is a 'metaphorical' version of image-based reasoning.<ref name="Lakoff_1990">{{cite journal |last=Lakoff |first=George |date=1990 |title=Iinvariance hypothesis: is abstract reasoning based on image-schemas? |journal=Cognitive Linguistics |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=39–74 |doi= 10.1515/cogl.1990.1.1.39 |s2cid=144380802 }}</ref> Language is not considered as a separate area of [[cognition]],  but as coinciding with general cognitive capacities, such as [[perception]], [[attention]], [[motor skills]], and spatial and [[visual processing]]. It is argued to function according to the same principles as these.<ref name="Croft&Cruse_2004">{{cite book |last1=Croft |first1=William |last2=Cruse |first2=Alan|year=2004| title=Cognitive Linguistics |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn= 9780511803864 }}</ref><ref name="Geeraerts_2006">{{cite book |last1=Geeraerts |first1=Dirk |year=2006| title=Cognitive Linguistics: Basic Readings | editor-last=Geeraerts | editor-first=Dirk | chapter=Introduction: a rough guide to Cognitive Linguistics|publisher=De Gruyter |isbn= 978-3-11-019990-1  }}</ref>

It is thought that the brain links action schemes to form–meaning pairs which are called [[Grammatical construction|constructions]].<ref name="Arbib_2015">{{cite book |last=Arbib |first=Michael A.|editor-last= MacWhinney and O'Grady |title=Handbook of Language Emergence |publisher=Wiley |date=2015 |pages=81–109 |chapter= Language evolution – an emergentist perspective |isbn= 9781118346136 }}</ref> Cognitive linguistic approaches to syntax are called [[Cognitive Grammar|cognitive]] and [[construction grammar]].<ref name="Croft&Cruse_2004" /> Also deriving from memetics and other cultural replicator theories,<ref name=Croft_2008 /> these can study the natural or [[social selection]] and adaptation of linguistic units. Adaptational models reject a formal systemic view of language and consider language as a population of linguistic units.

The bad reputation of social Darwinism and memetics has been discussed in the literature, and recommendations for new terminology have been given.<ref name=Keller_1994>{{cite book |last=Keller |first=Rudi |year=1994| title=On Language Change: the Invisible Hand in Language |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=9780415076722 }}</ref> What correspond to replicators or mind-viruses in memetics are called ''linguemes'' in Croft's ''theory of Utterance Selection'' (TUS),<ref name=Croft_2006>{{cite book |last=Croft |first=William |editor-last=Nedergaard Thomsen |editor-first=Ole | year=2006| title=Competing Models of Linguistic Change: Evolution and Beyond | chapter=The relevance of an evolutionary model to historical linguistics |series=Current Issues in Linguistic Theory |volume=279 |publisher=John Benjamins |pages=91–132 |doi=10.1075/cilt.279.08cro |isbn=978-90-272-4794-0 }}</ref> and likewise linguemes or constructions in construction grammar and [[Usage-based models of language|usage-based linguistics]];<ref name=Kirby_2013>{{cite book |last=Kirby|first=Simon |chapter=Transitions: The Evolution of Linguistic Replicators |editor-last1=Binder |editor-last2=Smith|year=2013| title=The Language Phenomenon |series=The Frontiers Collection |publisher=Springer|url=http://www.labex-whoami.fr/images/documents/kirby_Labex_JC_paper.pdf |pages=121–138 |doi=10.1007/978-3-642-36086-2_6 |isbn=978-3-642-36085-5 |access-date=2020-03-04}}</ref><ref name=Zehentner_2019>{{cite book |last=Zehentner |first=Eva |year=2019| title=Competition in Language Change: the Rise of the English Dative Alternation |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |isbn=978-3-11-063385-6 }}</ref> and [[metaphor]]s,<ref name=Camarinha-Matos&Afsarmanesh_2008>{{cite book |last1=Camarinha-Matos |first1=Luis M.|last2=Afsarmanesh |first2=Hamideh |year=2008| title=Collaborative Networks: Reference Modeling |publisher=Springer|pages=139–164 |isbn=978-0-387-79426-6 }}</ref> [[Frame semantics (linguistics)|frames]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fillmore |first1=Charles J. |last2=Baker |first2=Collin |editor-last=Heine & Narrog |title=The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic analysis (2nd ed.) |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2014 |pages=791–816 |chapter=A frames Approach to Semantic Analysis |chapter-url=http://lingo.stanford.edu/sag/papers/Fillmore-Baker-2011.pdf|isbn= 978-0199677078}}</ref> or [[Schema (psychology)|schemas]]<ref name=Langacker_1987>{{cite book |last=Langacker|first=Roland |year=1987| title=Foundations of Cognitive Grammar, Vol. 1: Theoretical prerequisites |publisher=Stanford University Press |pages=130 |isbn=978-0804738514 }}</ref> in cognitive and construction grammar. The reference of memetics has been largely replaced with that of a [[Complex Adaptive System]].<ref name=Frank_2008>{{cite book |last=Frank |first=Roslyn M. |date=2008|editor-last=Frank |  title=Sociocultural Situatedness, Vol. 2| publisher=De Gruyter |chapter=The Language–organism–species analogy: a complex adaptive systems approach to shifting perspectives on "language" |pages=215–262 |isbn=978-3-11-019911-6 }}</ref> In current linguistics, this term covers a wide range of evolutionary notions while maintaining the [[Neo-Darwinism|Neo-Darwinian]] concepts of replication and replicator population.<ref name=Beckner_2009>{{cite journal |last=Beckner, Blythe, Bybee, Christiansen, Croft, Ellis, Holland, Ke, Larsen-Freeman, Schoenemann |year=2009 |title=Language is a Complex Adaptive System: Position Paper |url=http://cnl.psych.cornell.edu/pubs/2009-LACAS-pos-LL.pdf |journal=Language Learning |volume=59 |issue=1 |pages=1–26 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9922.2009.00533.x|s2cid=143150253 |access-date=2020-03-04}}</ref>

Functional evolutionary linguistics is not to be confused with [[Functional linguistics|functional humanistic linguistics]].